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A Medieval Almshouse for the Clergy: Clyst Gabriel Hospital near Exeter

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Extract

Walter Stapledon, bishop of Exeter 1308-26, treasurer of England and victim of the downfall of Edward 11, was a notable benefactor of the Church. As well as giving generously to the rebuilding of Exeter Cathedral (where he was buried in a splendid tomb beside the high altar), he founded or planned three institutions for the clergy of his diocese: a school foundation for a tutor and twelve pupils in the hospital of St John at Exeter; a college for a chaplain and twelve scholars at Oxford (now Exeter College); and a hospital for two chaplains and twelve infirm priests at Clyst Gabriel in Bishop's Clyst, four miles east of Exeter. Unlike the college, the hospital has long since disappeared, but its records survive in unusual profusion for such a small foundation. Not only do they reveal the constitutional and financial history of the house, they also preserve the names of many of its inmates, the dates of their entry and of their deaths or departures. Clyst Gabriel possesses, in effect, one of the oldest registers of patients in an English hospital, commencing as early as 1312.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

1 On Stapledon and his career, see Buck, M., Politics, Finance and the Church in the Reign of Edward II. Walter Stapledon, treasurer of England, Cambridge 1983Google Scholar.

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3 Bishop's Clyst lies on the old road from Exeter to Sidmouth, immediately east of the River Clyst. It is in two parishes: the north side of the road in Sowton, and the south side in Clyst St Mary.

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23 D&C 5213.

24 There are three series of accounts in the Exeter Cathedral Archives: D&C 793/1-799 (mainly fragmentary and unfit for use), D&C 5206-5231, and Vicars Choral (hereinafter cited as VC) 3346, 22215, 22230 and 22271-8.

25 D&C 5212/6-7.

26 D&C 796.

27 E.g. D& C 791, 5206 (1312-13); 797/1, 5215 (1348-9); and 5226, V C 22230 (1463-4).

28 D& C 5215; V C 22215.

29 D&C 5223, 5214/9; VC 22271 m. 1.

30 VC 22272.

31 D&C 5212/1.

32 D&C 5212/6-7, 5212/1-3, 5213.

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52 D&C 798/2; VC 22271 mm. 1-3.

53 D&C 5216.

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55 It is suggestive that the general expenditure in the stewards’ accounts, which had once included Clyst Gabriel, drops from £32 17.1. 5d. in 1381 (D&C 2803) to £ 9 17s. 2d. in the next surviving account of 1387 (D&C 2804).

58 VC 22271 mm. 2-3.

57 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1391-5, 580; D & C 788.

58 Reg. Grandisson, iii. 1431.

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67 VC 22278.

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69 VC 22278.

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73 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1494-1509, 594; D&C 2878.

74 D&C 5323. A second charter of union was also issued by Oldham on 20 May 1509 (D&C 2878), perhaps because the ownership of Warland was being disputed by its former tenants, the Trinitarian friars.

75 Valor Ecclesiasticus tempore Henrici VIII, ed. Caley, J., 6 vols, London 1810-1834, ii. 310.Google Scholar

76 VC 22071.

77 Amulree, Lord, ‘Monastic infirmaries’, in The Evolution of Hospitals in Britain, ed. Poynter, F. N. L., London 1964, 1126Google Scholar . I am grateful to Dr M.J. Hatcher for this reference.

78 The list in Knowles and Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses, 313-410, seems to include only Cricklade, Wilts. (1415); London, Whittington's (1422, but only for clerks from an adjoining college); and London, the Papey (1430).